Growing Pains (1985–1992)
5/10
A middle of the road bland "family friendly" show
23 September 2008
As with other "family friendly" shows, the underlying theme is how propaganda is good for society. Good people are crafted by presenting a manufactured saccharine reality, rather than actual reality. I can't recall the show doing a good job of demonstrating the pitfalls of hypocrisy and other truly educational matters, unlike Family Ties.

It's been a long time since I saw this, but it was similar to Full House, another show that I found unwatchable because of the bland characters and smarminess. At least Michael J. Fox brought energy as well as some reality to his show. Cameron, by contrast, is more interested in knocking cast members away and apparently lobbying against producers to prevent reality from peeking through.

The show isn't awful, but when I made a short list of the weakest examples of corporate television, this show was part of it, along with Full House.
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